Interviews
Dave Vasquez (Canyon Creep ) Interview
by Nathan HIller (Gods of Metal)
7/24/01
Nathan: Good Afternoon Dave! How are you doing? I want to thank you for taking the time to do this short interview. I
Know how busy your schedule has been. Let's get right down to it shall we?
Nathan. Where did the name Canyon Creep come from?
Dave: Well, we originally were called "American Nightmare" but another band came out after us and released a record under that name. We were like "fuck it, lets just rename the band after our newest tune - which was Canyon Creep. It's a song about the wonderful, scary transients who inhabit the Niles Canyon area where our singer, Tony, use to live.
Nathan: Outside of Canyon creep, what jobs do each of you work at, or is Canyon Creep a full time gig?
Dave: Well, I was working as an animator during the day, but the company I worked for just went out of business! So I guess you could say, right now, Canyon Creep is a full-time job. Or does that count? As for the other guys, Tony manages some people in a big-ass where house. I think Jerry packs some cheese somewhere.
Nathan: Tell our readers a typical Canyon Creep week.
Dave: During the day we're payin' the dues and during the night we're jamming our asses off. On the weekends we usually try to bbq some mean-ass ribs. And there's lots of beer.
Nathan: People are comparing Canyon Creep to a cross between Zake Wylde and Anthrax's John Bush. I can hear Zake and Black Sabbath's influence in your music. How true do you feel this to be and how would you describe your music?
Dave: Wow, Tony will be stoked to hear that! Well, I can definitely say that Black Sabbath is a huge influence on this band, as is Motorhead, The Stooges, and the MC5. I guess you could describe our music as part rock, part punk, and part metal. Some of our favorite bands are that way...like The Obsessed. I fucking love that band!
Nathan: How well has HIJACK THE WORLD! Been doing since the release?
Dave: It's been doing great...we're pretty lucky, the feedback is mostly positive. There's always a few people you can't please, but oh well, fuck'em!
Nathan: How did Canyon Creep and Billy Anderson Team-up?
Dave: Tony has been friends with George Rice and Matt Pike from the band "High on Fire" (one of the loudest bands in the world!) who did their debut album with Billy Anderson. They basically helped us get in touch with him. Luckily, he lives in San Francisco so we sent him a demo and he liked it.
Nathan: What was it like to work with Billy?
Dave: It was great. Billy brought a lot to the record. He's a musician too so he's really good at making bands sound amazing. I think we tracked everything in 1 or 2 days. It's all pretty raw. I loved what he did for the Melvins on the Houdini record. He worked with Kurt Cobain on that one and the sound is killer.
Nathan: How did each of you (in Canyon Creep) meet?
Dave: Well, Tony and Jerry have known each other for a while now. They were the 'original' version of Canyon Creep when it was called 'American Nightmare' except the band was mainly an excuse just to get liqoured up. They weren't trying to be a good band or anything. I still thought they kicked ass, though. I met Tony through a mutual drummer that had been in each of our previous bands. It was cool, I could tell we clicked, we liked a lot of the same bands.
Nathan: How has e-zines, such as Gods of Metal, Stonerock, etc. help promote Canyon Creep and other indi-Artists?
Dave: Well, there's a huge online music community now and they really reach a lot of people. When we first put our songs on Mp3.com, we couldn't believe it. The response was pretty overwhelming. Word of mouth on these sites seems to spread real fast. And God's of Metal has definitely given a lot of props to this band, so that always helps!
Nathan: Earlier this year Canyon Creep was featured on our (Gods of Metal) CD recording, entitled, Ferocity, where you where a winner in our battle of the Bands contest. Do you believe that Battle of the Bands Contests over the Internet has helped with exposing your music to the world?
Dave: Did we actually win something? I think anything that exposes up and coming bands is a good thing. With your contest it was cool cause there was a cd to go with it.
Nathan: What is your take on the free downloads of music, from sites such as Napster?
Dave: I'll probably get lots of hell for this, but I think it's totally cool. It's kind of a double-edged sword, though...when your up and coming, all you want to do is get the shit out there and Napster was great for that. It was the ultimate "word of mouth". But, if you're an "established" band like Metallica, you also want to make as much money as you can on what you own. I just think it's funny cause I'm from the Bay Area and I remember Metallica when they were up and coming. They use to make demos of their songs and sold them at shows. They even encouraged people to dub them, just to get the music out to as many people as possible. That's how they got so huge without ever being on the radio. It was all word of mouth and people dubbing/trading tapes, going to shows. So, my opinion is that it's kind of hypocritical for them to do a witchhunt on something that's the same principle of how they got successful in the first place. Just my opinion. Maybe it would be different if I was i
n their shoes.
Nathan: How has is the music scene in San Francisco for Artist such as you?
Dave: Honestly? It kind of sucks! I mean, I'm sure it's better than a lot of places, but it's not as good as it use to be. Especially for rock bands. Plus, San Francisco is still dominated by DJ culture. There's only a few decent clubs for rock bands to play in and the local press isn't that supportive as well. This whole dot com fiasco has also really changed the city. Property values have gone through the roof so rehearsal studios and a lot of clubs have sold out to rich internet companies. One rehearsal studio shut down and left 500 musicians without a place to play! Many of those have moved away to other cities. That's had a huge cultural impact on a city that's known for its music culture. Now most of those internet companies have gone bankrupt, so there's a lot of brand new business buildings and trendy lofts sitting empty! Still, there's never a shortage of really good bands here. High on Fire, Operator Generator, Acid King, Gammera are just a few off the top of my head. I'm a
lso sensing the tide starting to swing back to rock as more clubs are starting to offer slots to rock bands.
Nathan: I've read the reviews of `Weedstock 2001' on stonerock and wanted to hear your take on the event.
Dave: That was a great show. We released our cd there, but we got to play with one of our favorite bands, Operator Generator from Man's Ruin Records. Plus, another favorite, Acid King (also on Man's Ruin), as well as Gammera and Greenhouse Effect. I wish we could play more shows like that. There was a really cool vibe.
Nathan: Share with us the craziest or silliest thing that has happen during one of you shows.
Dave: Uh...well,
Nathan: Who would you say has made the biggest impact on your music?
Dave: For me...3 people: Iggy Pop when he was in the Stooges, Lemmy from Motorhead, and Wino from The Obsessed and Spirit Caravan. In my opinion, these guys and their bands, absolutely rock. They kind of define what rock is all about for me.
Nathan: I understand that you are putting together a national tour. What cities have you planed for this?
Dave: Well, we'd love to do a national tour, but at this point we're trying to do some shows in Washington and Oregon and possibly in the southwest in the fall. Maybe we can even play in your town. The fact of the matter is that it's hard to be DIY forever and we're 3 very poor fellows. We'd love to hook up with a label who could distribute "Hijack The World!" to a larger audience and help us to tour in support of it. We'll see.
Nathan: Tell us a little about the new material for the next CD.
Dave: It's heavy. More Sabbath/Obsessed influenced stuff. Billy is going to produce and engineer it for us again. We're going to try to spend a little more time with this one. We don't want to make the same record all over again. The first record was kind of a snapshot of us in the beginning...we were very raw and basic...we just wanted to rock like fuckin hell! Like The Stooges or MC5 and have that kind of raw energy level. But, we've evolved a lot since recording that. Some of our other influences are creeping to the top now and the stuff is a little more mature. A little deeper. We'll see.
Nathan: What does the future hold for Canyon Creep?
Dave: Well, we hope to settle with some label to get "Hijack The World!" distributed and play shows like crazy. Then we'll be going back in to the studio to record.
Nathan: Is there anything you would like to share with our readers?
Dave: Please buy our cd so we can eat some food!
Thanks again for your time.
Best Regards,
Nathan Hiller
Gods of Metal
Brother Issak Records
http://www.godsofmetal.zzn.com
